This site is mainly aimed at teachers and students at Key Stage 4 and in post-16 education. It is specifically aimed to support applied science courses and parts of the statutory work-related learning framework. It gives a context for how Key Skills and Science are used in the pharmaceutical industry. For more information on how the activities on this site map to the curriculum, visit our Curriculum Links section.
About the Modules
Lab and Pilot Plant Tours - aimed at post-16 chemistry courses
- a virtual tour of a chemistry pilot plant shows how chemistry is carried out safely on a large scale
- a teacher led activity explores what to consider in scaling up a typical reaction from 2g to 20kg
Medicine box challenge
Key objective - to give students an appreciation of the importance of dosage regimes, safety of medicines and storage conditions.
- using dosage and safety data to design a label for a medicine box and bottle
- gives an appreciation of how drugs are absorbed in the body, how they are eliminated from the blood stream and therefore an understanding of why, for example, we take 2 tablets 4 times a day
- investigating drug absorption data using an interactive spreadsheet to pick the best blood level profile
- can be used as an enterprise challenge in producing specific quantities of boxes to a design brief with correct labelling.
Getting a job
Key objective - to give students an appreciation of good and bad application forms and the subsequent steps in the job application process.
- students work in groups to select the best candidates from application forms for work experience positions;
- useful background information covers hints on filling in applications forms, producing a good CV and performing well at an interview.
FAQ File
Key objective - to provide answers to common questions raised by students doing research projects on the pharmaceutical industry.
- how science is used in the workplace
- types of jobs and qualifications of staff
- health and safety
- local impact
- business data
Safety at Work
Key objective - to give students an appreciation of safe working practices and how to carry out a risk assessment.
- students assess the risks in a chemical reaction and work out how to carry it out safely using various data sheets provided;
- provision of a Risk Assessment template for students to use for classic school experiments
Beating Bacteria - for KS4 with aspects suitable for post-16
Key objective - to give students an appreciation of how drugs are developed using comparisons of key data sets; what aspects are the most important for an orally dosed medicine; production and manufacturing timescales.
- looking at data on 10 potential new drugs and deciding which to take forward;
- deciding on the manufacturing process and timescales based on information given;
- looking at data on 52 potential new drugs and deciding which to take forward by sorting and ordering data in spreadsheets;
- can be used as an enterprise challenge.
Picking the Team
Key objective - to give students an appreciation of the variety of skills that are needed by the pharmaceutical industry, what to look for in a CV and how to write them. A separate activity explores team working skills and how to make an effective team.
- students match a candidate’s CV to a job description - there are 8 typical roles and 6 CVs;
People and Process
Key objective - to give students background information on how medicines are developed and the contributions different scientists make to that process
- Interactive timeline of the Research and Development (R&D) process
- Individual case studies of scientists who work in the industry
- Card sort activity to consider the order in which R&D activities should take place
- Consider what a scientists CV should include